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About this chapterThe nations are summoned to listen: the Lord is angry with all of them and has set them apart for destruction. The hosts of heaven dissolve, and the sword is bathed in heaven, then descends in judgment on Edom, a symbol of nations hostile to God's people. Streams turn to pitch and the land to burning sulfur, and it becomes a wasteland where wild creatures roam and no one passes. The chapter describes this desolation with vivid poetic images, not necessarily a literal forecast. It ends by urging readers to search the book of the Lord and see that his word will be fulfilled.

The nations are summoned to listen: the Lord is angry with all of them and has set them apart for destruction. The hosts of heaven dissolve, and the sword is bathed in heaven, then descends in judgment on Edom, a symbol of nations hostile to God's people. Streams turn to pitch and the land to burning sulfur, and it becomes a wasteland where wild creatures roam and no one passes. The chapter describes this desolation with vivid poetic images, not necessarily a literal forecast. It ends by urging readers to search the book of the Lord and see that his word will be fulfilled.

Themes

  • Judgment on the nations
  • Edom as a symbol of hostility
  • The Lord's word fulfilled

Key verses

Audio Bible · Isaiah 34

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Isaiah 34

Berean Standard Bible17 verses · 2 min read

1Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it. 2The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will devote them to destruction; He will give them over to slaughter. 3Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood. 4All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree. 5When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. 6The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat— with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7And the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong ones. Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat. 8For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 9Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch. 10It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it. 11The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction. 12No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing. 13Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches. 14The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose. 15There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate. 16Search and read the scroll of the LORD: Not one of these will go missing, not one will lack her mate, because He has ordered it by His mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit. 17He has allotted their portion; His hand has distributed it by measure. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it from generation to generation.
Verses in Isaiah 34

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